Tom reviews the Spyderco Advocate Flipper-Style Folding Knife.
Idaho – -(AmmoLand.com)- Spyderco Knives has a legendary following of knife connoisseurs and for good reason. Every one that I have ever tested has come from the factory with a wicked sharp edge.
I’ve known the Spyderco head of Public & Media Relations, Joyce Laituri for years. She is great and the perfect Media representative, in fact the best I’ve met. She has a great personality and everyone loves working with her. When she offered me the Spyderco Advocate flipper-style, folding knife to review I jumped at the chance. I’ve done a couple of knife reviews on Spyderco knives and plan on doing a few more in the not too distant future. And with that said let’s review the Spyderco Advocate.
Spyderco Advocate Flipper-Style Folding Knife
If you’re looking for a comfortable to carry EDC folder, then you need to take a serious look at the Spyderco Advocate knife. The blade is right at 3 ½” long, which is my preferred size. For EDC you want a clip point and this one has a somewhat cross between a clip point and a drop point design so it fits the bill for me.
The Spyderco Advocate is a flipper but it also has the signature thumb hole which many people use to open their Spyderco folders. Like all flippers, if you open it with some force the blade snaps open easily. The knife is only 5/16” thick, so it is so thin that you may forget that you’re carrying it.
If you favor a pocket clip on your folders then take heart. The Spyderco Advocate has a pocket clip that is ambidextrous so you can switch up sides at will. The flipper also dually acts as a finger guard on bottom when it is open to help stabilize your grip. The spine is slightly raised above the thumb hole, and has thumb grooves on top, which further stabilizes your grip. So, even for a thin knife, you will have a firm grip on it at all times.
The locking system is a liner lock, which is tight to release. This isn’t all bad, since that ensures that it stays locked until you want it to close. There were some reports of washer issues with this knife, some time back, but I see that Spdyerco has rectified all of those in the current design.
So as stated above, I will use the Spyderco Advocate as an EDC, but if I happen to forget my skinning knife while out hunting, the Advocate will work fine on skinning my big game animals. If you like a lanyard on your knives then you’ll be happy to know that it also has a hole to tie on a lanyard.
As I was finishing the review process, I noticed a stamp on the blade with the knife designer’s name, Gayle Bradley and the state of Texas was also stamped below his name and below that is Weatherford. I used to rodeo a lot of years ago and rode in a couple of college rodeos in Weatherford. If I remember correctly, I think I placed 4th once there in bareback riding, and the year before I could of won the bareback riding but some fat lard jumped up to sit on the fence with his tail hanging out. My horse bucked in under him and his tail hit me in the chest and knocked me back to the flank strap. I raised Cain but the rodeo judge wouldn’t give me a re-ride. But I drew a good horse the next day down further SE in Texas and split a 1st. And all of this has nothing to do with the Spyderco Advocate, but the Weatherford, Texas stamp made me reminisce of my old rodeo days.
On the Spyderco website it states:
“The Spyderco Advocate is a production version of custom knifemaker Gayle Bradley’s first flipper-style folder design. The blade is precision machined from CPM® M4—a high-performance tool steel renowned for its extreme edge-holding ability. The full-flat-ground, PlainEdged
blade includes both a prominent index-finger flipper and a fully functional Trademark Round Hole that allow a full spectrum of one-handed opening methods. To ensure a high-speed, low-drag action, the blade also pivots between special friction-reducing ball-bearing washers.
The Advocate’s handle consists of two 3-D-machined solid titanium scales that are radiused across their width and feature a unique “orange peel” finish that is both visually striking and provides an enhanced grip texture. The reverse-side handle scale forms the foundation of a high-strength Reeve Integral Lock (R.I.L.) mechanism with a stainless steel interface. This interface ensures a secure lock-up, a long service life, and serves double duty as an overtravel stop to maintain proper spring tension of the lock bar. The handle also boasts an open-backed construction style to minimize weight and simplify cleaning and a reversible hourglass clip that provides convenient left or right-side tip-up carry”.
The MSRP is $379.95 and as is usual, we will close with the specs.
Spyderco Advocate Flipper-Style Folding Knife SPECS:
- Overall Length: 8.04″ (204mm)
- Blade Length: 3.49″ (89mm)
- Steel: CPM M4
- Closed Length: 4.55″ (116mm)
- Edge Length: 3.23″ (82mm)
- Weight: 3.9oz (111g)
- Blade Thickness: 0.118″ (3.0mm)
- Handle: Titanium
- Clip Position: Ambidextrous
- Tip Carry Position: Tip-Up
- Lock Type: R.I.L.
- Grind: Full-Flat
About Tom Claycomb
Tom Claycomb has been an avid hunter/fisherman throughout his life as well as an outdoors writer with outdoor columns in the magazine Hunt Alaska, Bass Pro Shops, Bowhunter.net and freelances for numerous magazines and newspapers. “To properly skin your animal you will need a sharp knife. I have an e-article on Amazon Kindle titled Knife Sharpening for $.99 if you’re having trouble.”